Why man?

Corvus · Post by **Corvus** » Wed Feb 04, 2004 11:09 pm

The question is simple. Why did an omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient being create man? Boredom?

Shild · Post by **Shild** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 12:36 am

Except the U.S government never created citizens with the ability to choose between right and wrong, then expect them to always do what's right, as God did.

The US government did remove the ban on alcoholic consumption (probibition), thus giving citizens the ability to choose between right (moderation/abstinence) and wrong (excessiveness) when it comes to drinking. Also, the government officials do not expect citizens to always practice moderation in regards to alcohol (unless they are thoroughly disconnected from reality).

More importantly, God dose not expect humans to always do what is right. That is the reason for divine forgiveness.

In the Bible, a mechanism for forgiveness is always provided. In the Old Testament, this involves sacrificing lambs. In the New Testament, it is sacrificing the Christ. In either case, humans' capacity to make wrong choices is absolved.

Corvus · Post by **Corvus** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 12:44 am

Then why have a wrong at all?!

You can err, but you can make yourself forgiven. Then you will go to heaven. If you don't make yourself forgiven, you go to hell.

And again, the question is, why did God create man?

Shild · Post by **Shild** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 1:07 am

Then why have a wrong at all?!

Because "wrong" is just that which is ungodly. The ability to choose wrong is the ability to turn away from God. Without wrong, humans would have no alternative to choosing God, and therefore would have no free will of their own.

You can err, but you can make yourself forgiven. Then you will go to heaven. If you don't make yourself forgiven, you go to hell.

I think that is a fair assessment.

And again, the question is, why did God create man?

God needs no reason to do anything, and whatever makes God decide to do anything is a mystery to humans unless He decides specifically to reveal it to us.

So, basically, my answer to the topic question is "I do not know and I do not care."

Corvus · Post by **Corvus** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 1:14 am

Shild wrote:
Then why have a wrong at all?!
Because "wrong" is just that which is ungodly. The ability to choose wrong is the ability to turn away from God. Without wrong, humans would have no alternative to choosing God, and therefore would have no free will of their own.

You can err, but you can make yourself forgiven. Then you will go to heaven. If you don't make yourself forgiven, you go to hell.
I think that is a fair assessment.

And again, the question is, why did God create man?
God needs no reason to do anything, and whatever makes God decide to do anything is a mystery to humans unless He decides specifically to reveal it to us.

So, basically, my answer to the topic question is "I do not know and I do not care."

That seems fair. I'll answer that to every topic posted in the Christian forum. "You can't possibly understand God, so I don't know and you can't possibly either".

I, however, believe God has practical reasons for his laws and for his deeds.

Shild · Post by **Shild** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 1:34 am

I, however, believe God has practical reasons for his laws and for his deeds.

I think He does as well. This has nothing to do with whether or not these reasons are accessible to the human mind.

That seems fair. I'll answer that to every topic posted in the Christian forum. "You can't possibly understand God, so I don't know and you can't possibly either".

This only applies to topics which attempt to probe God's motivations, not to all topics.

RavEMasteR · Post by **RavEMasteR** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 8:01 am

Tsk, tsk, Shild, you should know by now that questioning everything is the way to improve ourselves. If we just kept quiet and live our lives as if nothing is interesting enough, we'd all be rotting away into old tradition. Old tradition is ridiculous at times, and yet still people follow it.

Shild · Post by **Shild** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 9:50 am

Shild, you should know by now that questioning everything is the way to improve ourselves.

I am well aware. But as I said,

This only applies to topics which attempt to probe God's motivations, not to all topics.

There is no reason to believe most things are outside of human understanding, like science for example.

People can most certainly improve themselves by asking questions and sincerely investigating to find answers. However, this is one of those extremely rare cases in which no amount of investigation can lead to a satisfactory answer. When it comes to the motivations of God, we just do not have enough information; we have little more to go on than guess work.